Could a July timeframe be planned to tie in this legendary superhero with Comic Con?

Posted by David Lambert

5/28/2012

Chosen from among all others by the immortal elders - Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury - Billy Batson and his mentor travel the highways and byways of the land on a never-ending mission: to right wrongs, to develop understanding, and to seek justice for all. In time of dire need, young Billy has been granted the power by the Immortals to summon awesome forces at the utterance of a single word: "SHAZAM!" A word which transforms him in a flash into the mightiest of mortal beings: Captain Marvel!

The 1974 live-action show Shazam!, which aired on CBS Saturday mornings and was produced by Filmation, is one of the most-asked-about shows around here: we've had readers of every age constantly inquiring about about a DVD release for it over the ten-and-a-half years our site has been active! The 2005 DVD release of the third and final season of the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series originally came with a bonus disc, which contained the Shazam! episode "The Joyriders," as part of the studio's celebration of the 50th anniversay of Warner Television. No other DVDs have been seen so far in North America for the much-beloved program!

Over the holiday weekend, however, I received an email from reader Eric Mann, who I'm grateful to because I overlooked a couple of tweets from our friends at @WarnerArchive! These Twitter posts from last Wednesday and last Friday CLEARLY show that somethign is in-the-works from the Warner Archive's MOD (manufacture on demand) program for a DVD release of Shazam!. When would something like that come out? The tweets (shown below via screen capture, in case anything gets un-tweeted!) don't say, but Eric tells us that some of the comic books currently out at comic book stores show advertisements with a July release timeframe. I haven't been able to confirm that personally, but it makes sense: that's the time of the San Diego Comic Con, and the folks at Warner will certainly want to tie in this release with that huge event!

Again, thanks to Eric for the heads-up. And stay tuned, because we'll post more info about this highly-anticipated item just as soon as we can!